A Walk To Remember
by PrincessOfIllFate
Summary: There was a time when the world was sweeter...You all know and love the story, now see it portrayed as it has never been before. D/G. a new Love, a Tragedy, and the altered life of a very dear character.(Alternate description inside)
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not the Plot, not the characters. The plot belongs to Nicholas Sparks and the characters and setting and everything else belongs to J K Rowling. I am in no way making money off of this.

  


Description: _There was a time when the world was sweeter..._ You all know and love the story, now see it shown as it's never been portrayed before...  
Draco Malfoy had had his share of girls, and even thought that once he had been in love. The last person he thought he'd fall for was Ginny Weasley, the sister of a Muggle-Loving fool! Though it was Ginny, and perhaps fate, that was determined to show him the depths of the human heart...and the joy and pain of living...

A/N: Heya Guys! Here I am with yet another Draco/Ginny story. This one isn't original really, except that I took my own idea and am fusing two stories together in a way. I'm being bad, of course, starting a new fic while I'm still working on another one. I'll finish both though, I just really wanted to see how people react to my stories! So yea, anyway, please read it and review it after you're done, even if you hate it, and tell me what you think of it. Thanks!

PrncssOfillFate

_Prologue_

It was my last year at Hogwarts that changed my life forever...

Nobody could ever understand anything that happened to me that year, and I don't think I'd eve bother to explain it if they asked me. Not out of selfishness, oh no, because I would tell a thousand people our story, were they patient enough to sit through it all and allow me to give them every last detail.

Our story is too complex to even consider sugarcoating it and feeding it to the masses in a completely false form. Nobody at Hogwarts that year would even think about making me do it, knowing the circumstances.

It wasn't as much my story as it was their's, considering how she touched all of their lives. However, it was I who was closest to it.

I'm an old man now, but I can remember everything that happened that year, from the tinkle of bells to a car crash. I remember it all.

Sometimes I wonder, if I had a Time-Turner,would I go back and take all of the depression and along with it, the joy, away? Deep inside of me I know that I would never relinquish myself of those memories, though.

I could take you back there, you know? All I have to do is close my eyes, and then, as if I was looking into a Pensieve, the memories come back to life. I can smell the same scents from that day before I met her; hear the same sounds.

I open my eyes and know where I am; standing in front of the entrance to the Great Hall, knowing exactly who I am.

My name? Draco Malfoy, and I'm seventeen years old.

This is our story, nothing misplaced. I can promise you laughter, joy, and heartbreak. All of which are inevitable. Read on, and discover how I've changed.

A/N: Well, that was it for the prologue. I know, incredibly short, but I took this basically from the book A Walk to Remember and that prologue isn't long either, so that's why it's so short. Anyway the chapters'll be a lot longer. I'm just not too good with Prologues...heh 

  
  



	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, not even the plot, yadda yadda.

  


A/N: and here's the first chapter! I'm pretty fond of it myself, and I hope you guys like it! Well anyway here it is.

PrncssOfIlLFate 

  


Chapter One

  
  
  


Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was one of the most welcoming places a beginning witch or wizard could go to for schooling. Children and teenagers alike glittered along the school grounds, giggling girls and laughing boys were everywhere. Ghosts traveled to and fro, leaving a faint stench of Deathday party food everywhere they went.

Hogwarts school was probably the most popular magic school in all of Europe, and probably even in the world. You went there for all seven of your schooling years, and after that you were a legalized witch or wizard.

I didn't quite loathe anyone back then quite as much as I did Harry Potter and his best friend Ron Weasley. Ron, it was especially easy to make his blood boil, not to mention quite fun. My friends and I were quick to taunt him, especially about Mudbloods, for the love of his life, Hermione Granger, was one and he felt a strong urge to protect her against it.

"Ron hands around dirty, Mudblood filth!" my friends and I would call as we passed him, not a single glance in his direction. We could hear him saying "You'd better watch your back, Malfoy!" as we passed, no doubt Harry had held him back. I don't remember ever quite feeling any guilt, not even during those times when Granger'd show up after we'd called things at her, tears developing in her eyes. Ron would throw death glares at us while trying to cheer her up. One time I overheard him saying something like "I'm sure glad my sister stay away from the likes of Malfoy," but we'll elaborate more on that later.

Now that I'm an adult I realize that I didn't have a great family life growing up. My father was a Death Eater, and was number two to Voldemort himself. He was barely ever home, and when he was he'd lock himself up in the Forbidden Corridor of our house that was designed to allow only Death Eaters and the like onto it without receiving excruciating pain. He had a lot of power in the community, and I bet if he had wanted he could have been the Minister of Magic, all he'd have to do was deliver a few threats.

So basically I t was just my mother and I living in a huge house by ourselves. My mother was an awesome mom, when father wasn't around, and often wanted to leave him, though she never quite did. I didn't blame her, but I did blame her for part of the reason why I never had proper male influences in my life, and the more I blamed her the more rebellious I became.

I didn't do anything horrible, but I beat up enough people and things to cause many people to fear me.

Well anyway, my father hated all Weasley's with such a passion, and the feeling was mutual. I used to think that it was because we had much more money than them when I was growing up. It hadn't occurred to me that my family was treacherous and filled with blood thirsty mongrels. Nope. They hated us because we had money seemed to be the reason to my mind's ignorant eye.

The Weasley's were the poorest pureblooded family I had ever met in my life, but their family was filled with such emotion, the one named love mostly, that I still don't feel is fair, though I've learned that life never is a fair thing.

There was one man who seemed to stay neutral in the whole thing, and his name was Albus Dumbledore. In school I had my doubts about that; he seemed to loathe us Malfoy's just about as much as everyone else in this world. Dumbledore was a great wizard. He was the only one that Voldemort had ever feared, though I still never found out the exact reason why. Well he had written this play back before when he was the Headmaster of Hogwarts. This play was about a man who was basically soulless; who didn't seem to know what the truth of love was. He hadn't ever experienced it before in his life, and treated women as if they were something made for one purpose and one purpose only, sex. 

And then there was a girl. A girl different from any other. She wasn't the prettiest, or the smartest, or the tallest, or anything like that, but this girl had something that no other girl could claim to have. She had a life filled with love, a soul filled with emotion, a brain filled with intellect, and the ability to find something about every person that could be loved. She was a true godsend. 

The man and the woman never did get along, for the man always seemed to find something about her to make fun of, but the girl never really let it get to her. In the end he finds out that the girl was his godsend and she teaches him in the end to respect everyone, and helps him find it in his heart to learn to love. As much as I want to tell you that in the play the two of them were written to fall in love with each other, I can't, because that's not what happened in it.

Anyway, the play had been performed far and wide throughout the years before I was even born, but after a while the showings became less and less, causing everyone to wonder whatever happened to Dumbledore and his works. Well he became a Headmaster and helped teach young children to find the magic within themselves. Though he never did forget that play he had written that became instant success.

Perhaps that's why he decided to have Hogwarts put the production on in my Seventh year, though I wouldn't be able to bank on it. I suspect that people found out what became of him and sent him tons of owls, trying to get him to show the play again, which is exactly what he did.

If I were to tell you that I was overrun with joy when I heard we'd be doing a play, I'd be lying. Most all of the Seventh and Sixth years were basically forced to do this play, though most of them seemed really excited about it. It wasn't as if I was extremely angry about it, because if I was I could have written my father and had him get me out of it, but I didn't. To this day I still don't understand why I didn't, it was just something I did.

I was planning on skipping that first day of beginning the play, of course, but I was caught by Professor McGonagall, our school's Headmistress, and she ushered me off to Professor Dumbledore's room to begin working on the play. I was only a few minutes late, not enough for a lavish entry, so I took a seat down somewhere in the middle of the class and kicked my feet up on the desk nonchalantly. I had my mind set that this was going to be the most boring thing I had ever sat through, and wanted to make sure that every student in the room was sure to notice it.

I surveyed the front row that was full of what seemed to be sixth year Gryffindor's with a particular nasty smirk plastered on my face. Back then, a smirk was my trademark, and Gryffindor's were my enemy. One of them caught my eye. She sat in the very middle seat, dressed in ragged hand-me-down robes, and I knew right there that she was a Weasley. In fact, if I remembered correctly, she was Ginny Weasley, and the youngest of all of them. I remembered her from having teased her when we were younger, though I never really payed any attention to her, I did have a reputation to uphold, didn't I?

Well she sat there, a pale complexion on her face, bright red hair, and very few, very light freckles speckling her nose. She didn't seem to be friends with the people sitting on either side of her, especially since both of them had their backs facing her and were chatting with people to the other side of them. She held her hands together in anticipation, sitting up as straight as was possible, for Dumbledore to enter the room.

All in all, Ginny was a weird girl. She didn't do things like the other girls did. She made Hermione Granger look like a ditz! She kept to herself most of the time, except for when she was doing things to help others. She loved helping others. She was often working in the Hospital Wing with Madame Pomfrey, trying to help the sick people get well. She worked with teachers to help them grade papers, or to tutor those students who needed extra help, and when we took weekend trips to Hogsmeade, she'd spend her time helping some old witch with their yard work or something crazy like that. 

And if that wasn't enough to make people stay away from her, there was the fact that she was Ron Weasley's little sister. Now, when it came to Ron, you could be his best friend or his worst enemy, but there was no in between. Where his sister came along, if you didn't like her, he hated you, if you liked her he was suspicious, and if he knew just how MUCH you liked her, he was furious and was ready to rip your spine out, and for some reason, Ginny found that completely normal. She loved her brother almost more than her father, I'd imagine. We all wondered if she had some sort of mental illness.

But that wasn't it, oh no, that wasn't what drove me crazy about her. The worst thing of all was that she was always cheerful. Nothing you could do, no hurtful thing you could say would bring her down. It seemed to only make her stronger, and irritate you more. She never quite did say anything bad about anyone, even if they were complete jerks to her. She was just so damn wholesome.

It was then that she glanced around the room and looked at each person, her gaze catching mine. Her face broke out into one of those cheerful smiles of hers as she looked at me and it was obvious that she was glad I was in the class, though I wouldn't know why until later.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

All through my studying at Hogwarts, my father had wanted me to switch to Durmstrang so that I could get an 'in' with the Dark Lord, because at Hogwarts it was nigh impossible to reach a place of power without seeming suspicious to anyone. But my mother refused the change. It wasn't until one of his nights home during the summer that he came up with the brilliant plan of me becoming Head Boy.

"You can do it! Us Malfoy's _always_ win," he said, his voice tainted with innocent malice. I knew that I'd have to clean up my act in order to make my father happy, because if I didn't you never knew how badly he'd hurt and blame my mother. It was around this time that I knew I had to begin cleaning my act up and raising my marks, and to do that I needed a boy named Blaise Zabini to help me out. Blaise was, by far, one of the most intelligent students in the school. In fact it's safe enough to call him the 'Hermione Granger' of Slytherin house, he did that well. If it wasn't for him I probably would have never become Head Boy. Of course I probably would have avoided all of the trouble that being a Head would get me into.

When I was in my sixth year in school Dumbledore had planned yet another school dance, sort of like the Yule Ball, only it was supposed to be a whole lot better according to the students, as no one under fourth year was allowed to go at all. Everyone, of course, was up in arms about the whole idea. I wasn't. 

You see, not too long before the function was announced I had a girlfriend named Pansy Parkinson. She was the kind of girl who knew and gave you exactly what you wanted, and then some. Pretty, but in a harsh, masculine sort of way. She was always twirling her blonde hair between her fingertips and giggling about things like most teenage girls did. Anyway, she dumped me for a real jerk of a Ravenclaw named Michael Corner. I didn't mind much, except for the fact that I was now pretty much dateless to the dance coming up. 

Some people don't mind going to dances dateless; you never know who you might end up meeting, but no, not me. I was an arrogant young Malfoy, and Malfoy's, I assure you, are never to appear at a public function without a woman at your side. It simply did not happen. So the thought of going without a date to the dance had brought me to a panic. I quickly went through school records to find a list of all the girls in school who were above fourth year and began to weed through the ones deemed unacceptable by me. I went through the abridged version of the list of acceptable girls and began another process of eliminating the girls who I had known to have dates. I passed by Ginny Weasley's name and stalled a bit, but I quickly turned the page and scolded myself for even contemplating her as a choice. I quickly went through the list of all the other girls left in the school and found myself facing two choices; Weasley or Bulstrode. 

She isn't bad looking, I thought to myself as I flipped back to Ginny's name, and she's so nice she'd probably say yes...

I threw the papers to the ground. Ginny Weasley? Sister to the pompous arse Ron Weasley? Hell no. Screw that. The Slytherin's would tear me apart.

But all I could think about was being stuck in public without a date, my father staring at me with disdain and blaming my mother for my being alive, or even, god forbid, Millicent Bulstrode telling me stories about her cats while trying to seduce me, her manlike hands grabbing the back of my neck in an attempt to break it if I was to say no.

I kept debating with myself on the subject, wondering what I could do. Maybe I could order a date from the Witch Weekly personal ads? But no, Dumbledore would never allow it. Surely there was a way around it, if only I could find out what that was. But then I realized something, Harry Potter was probably doing the same thing I was at this exact moment! Thinking of asking Ginny to the dance and leaving me with Manlike Bulstrode! What if he asked Ginny before I did? And she would certainly say yes, with that big heart of hers! And he would be smug about it, too, rubbing it in my face if he found out that I had contemplated asking her only to find out her had gotten to her first!

So there I was, in the Slytherin Common Room, running through my choices and having that silly debate with myself on Ginny, when Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle came sauntering in.

"Got a date yet, Malfoy?" Crabbe, or maybe it was Goyle(honestly, you couldn't tell the two apart sometimes), asked me.

"I'm still deciding. How about you?" I asked smoothly, not wanting to lose my cool in front of my two best mates. I didn't have many, you know, and I had to keep up appearances at all times.

"Oh, yea. Some Hufflepuff fourth years agreed to go with us. Good luck," and with that they left the room. Now, you must understand my complete horror at the words I had heard leaving one of their mouth's. They _both_ had dates, and before I did! It was at that moment that I knew what I must do; ask Ginny Weasley to go with me to the dance in order to salvage my ego.

Waltzing, or rather, walking rather manly towards the Library, I caught glimpse of her pulling a book down from the shelf. She was still in her dowdy Hogwarts uniform, though she looked slightly more comfortable and laid back as usual, as her flaming hair wasn't tied of like normal, but was left wisping around her face like fire. I realized that she might actually be cute if only she knew how to present herself.

Watching her sit at a table, I moved over and took a seat across from her, smirking casually and waiting for her to speak.

"Draco! Well this is a surprise!" Ginny, as I have said before, was generally a happy person, and was usually nice to people, including Slytherin's. 

"Yeah. It is, isn't it?" I said, trying not to sound cynical. It was hard' talking to a Weasley without any bitterness involved. "So...I, uh, noticed that you weren't at the Great Hall for any meals today. Did Professor Dumbledore give you another day off to help the old witches at Hogsmeade today?" I asked, still trying to maintain some form of small talk.

"Oh. No. I had to go home and go with my father to the Muggle Doctor's office for something." she replied, a little on the stunned side I'd say.

"Oh, is he okay?" I asked, not caring in the least.

"As good as he ever was!" she answered happily, smile not quavering for a second. I nodded and looked around the room; nobody seemed to be there but the two of us. Still, I shifted uncomfortably and tried to avoid looking directly at her.

"Listen, is there a reason your here, Draco?" she asked finally, seemingly all knowing, as she usually was.

"Uh, yea, actually. I was just curious as to if you were going to the Dance?" I asked, clearing my throat in a very masculine way. 

"Oh," she said, as if she hadn't even thought of going to the dance until this minute. What only took minutes for an answer seemed like decades. "I really hadn't thought about it."

"Well, say someone asked you. Then would you go?" I asked, hiding what I was talking about in a very clever way, if I do say so myself., though it did take her a while to answer.

"I really couldn't say. I mean I guess I might, if I had the chance. I'd have to check with my brother first, you know, to make sure he thinks it's alright for me to go, but if he says it's okay, then I guess I could," she answered, her face full of contemplation.

"Well, would you go to the dance...with me?" I asked her finally, this time my voice was in a bit of a whisper in case one of the books held a hidden Quick Quotes Quill and was copying down word for word what we said in order to report back to the masses and put an end to my being as a Malfoy. 

I could tell she was surprised at my question, most likely due to my perfectly inconspicuous way of asking her, and even more likely because she thought I was asking her for someone else, as most kids those days did that. Her pause was a long one, and I began to see visions of Millicent sucking on my face after she had broken my back over one of her fat legs. Inwardly, I was gagging. I instantly began regretting the fact that I had treated her friends poorly over the years, and praying to myself that she might find the strength needed to forgive me, and thus save me from a fate worse than death with Millicent Bulstrode. At the minute I thought that I'd never be able to face the world again, she faced me with an awkward smile planted on her face.

"I'd love to," she answered, "on one condition. You have to promise not to fall in love with me." and with that she laughed, making it okay for me to breath a sigh of relief. I had to admit, Ginny was a pretty funny person at times.

Smiling, I gave her my promise and left the Library.


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

  


As the dance came closer my temporary relief dissolved once again and I began to think about things like what Ginny was going to wear to the dance. I didn't know if she had gone to the Yule Ball, and as I have told you, her family was poor. I could only hope she would show up in something halfway decent.

I tried talking to Blaise about the problem at hand, but he didn't help too much. He was too busy worrying about his date, one of the most sought after students in Hogwarts, and, of course, a Ravenclaw by the name of Cho Chang. She was the seeker on the Ravenclaw house team. He asked if I wanted to walk down with him and Cho to the Great Hall, but I turned it down. I didn't want Blaise to have any opportunity to make any snide comments for Ginny's sake.

The day of the dance went by rather quickly, though I was still in an intense mood at the thought of having to wait at the Library for Ginny. The thought of having to have a civil conversation with her brother Ron was enough to give any well-bred Slytherin a headache. But I did my best to ignore that fact. I, of course, had put on my best dress robes and sent out for a wild orchid for Ginny, hoping she'd appreciate the fact that I had done so.

As I neared the Library, I saw Ron waiting for me.

"Hello, Weasley," I called, in my nicest tone of course. What kind of person would I be if I started a conversation with my date's brother rudely?

"Malfoy. I just have one question for you. Why my sister?" he asked calmly, crossing his arms in front of himself as he looked at me. His body captured the look of a distinguished gentleman, who's only outlook on life was to protect and serve. Inwardly, this made me laugh.

"I needed someone to go with, so I asked. That's all." was my answer. I shifted uncomfortably. A conversation like this one was not one I wanted to have with any part of the famous trio. 

"This isn't some cruel joke of yours, is it?" he asked accusingly, though before I could give him my answer ('no'), Ginny exited the Library to greet me. Her robes were that of a light blue color, not too fancy, but certainly not as shabby as most of the things she owned, though it was nothing that would make her stand out. Her hair, again, was pulled up into a tight bun, though had a few untamed curls falling down around her head like a crown. The only right way to describe what she looked like is to say that she looked like she usually did, with the exception of dress robes.

"You aren't bothering Draco too much, are you Ron?" she asked cheerfully as if it was a joke. I tried to smile, though it came out as more of a double sided smirk.

"We were only talking, Gin," was Ron's answer, though his gaze never broke with mine. I think he was trying to make me feel inferior; I was trying not to laugh.

"Well, I think Draco and I had better get going. By Ron," she said after kissing him gently on the cheek, and then crossed over to my side. 

"Don't stay out too late, Gin. I don't want you catching your death of cold on your way back to the Dorms," and with that the two of us left on our way. I handed Ginny the orchid and the first thing she did was inhale the intense fragrance of the flower.

"Thank you, it's beautiful!" she replied in awe, dreadfully grateful of the tiny little flower I had gotten her, making me feel slightly flustered. I didn't talk much on our way towards the dance, though Ginny broke the silence quickly.

"My brother doesn't like you very much. He thinks you're a pompous arse." she said matter-of-factly. _That makes two of us_, I thought, but never said aloud. Instead I nodded curtly, agreeing with the words she said. "He doesn't like your father, either. Or anyone in your family, for that matter. But you know what? I think that there is definitely a reason for this. It's as if I'm supposed to help you or something. Like maybe I am supposed to help you help others," she began.

_Not again_, I thought to myself.

* * * * * * *

The dance, in a word, sucked. My friends avoided me, for Ginny was my date, and Ginny's friends avoided her, most likely due to the fact that she had me sitting by her side for most of the evening. I wanted to just leave and have the night be over with, but Ginny was having such a good time I couldn't just do that to her. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't that big of a jerk when I was in school. She loved everything about the dance, I couldn't very well take that all away from her. The only thing I kept looking forward to was the fact that in not very long I would be able to walk Ginny back to her dorm and bid her goodnight and then never see her again. Her brother told her not to stay out late, and Ginny valued his word above all; she wouldn't very well directly disobey what he asked of her.

After a while we started to dance, and she wasn't that bad either. At least not as bad as Millicent Bulstrode, I kept reminding myself. After a while, though, I decided it would be better if we sat back down due to the intense amount of staring, and we had a bit of a conversation. She did occasionally bring up all of the volunteer work she did, but she did it in such a happy way that I couldn't very well say anything against it.

It really wasn't until Pansy and that Michael kid showed up that things became tragic. They were hanging all over each other and it was becoming rather obvious that 'someone' had gotten into the firewhiskey, and I just knew that keeping my eye on Pansy, for her sake, would be a good idea.

That is until Michael came and decided to confront me about it. Now, let me tell you, on a usual school day kids like Michael cowered in fear of me, but that was only when they weren't pissed off their ass and possibly mentally deficient as well. Crosssing over, or rather, wobbling over to me, Pansy at his side, he had the drunken look of death in his eyes.

"You looking at Pansy?" he asked me, as if he might have had something in his eye and didn't see correctly.

"No. You must have had something in your eye and didn't see correctly," I responded ingeniously.

"Oh yes he was! I was watchin' him! This is my oooold boyfriend. The one I was telling you about," Pansy answered quite helpfully. Michael's shot daggers at me, much like Ron's used to do. I figure I have that effect on alot of people.

"Oh, so this is the guy?" Michael asked, as if he didn't already know who I was, because Draco Malfoy is definitely not a famous name, I assure you. Now, I'm not one for fighting, I'll tell you. I mean sometimes, I like to give a little jab at someone with words, and wait for them to make a move, and then sick Crabbe or Goyle, maybe both, at him until he runs away like a sissy. But this time it was different. Both Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere in sight.

"I wasn't staring at that cow. And I don't know what she told you, but it was most likely wrong," I answered, hoping that it would be the end of it. I was wrong.

"Pansy is -not- a liar!" he answered, his eyes glaring even deeper if it was at all possible. I swear he would have hit me at that moment, if it hadn't been for Ginny.

"Hey, don't I know you?" she asked him sweetly, staring at him for a few minutes. "Oh, yes! I do! I think I dated you slightly last year, you know? Your grandmother lives in Hogsmeade. I remember delivering some things from town to her for you before," she answered, a big smile on her face. "We were just sitting here and talking, would you guys like to join us?" she invited. I kept mentally shouting 'NO!', but she didn't hear me. Also, I was wondering what all this about dating each other she was talking about, but I let it slide for the time being. Without a word, Michael grabbed hold of Pansy's hand and dragged her off towards the dance floor.

Unfortunately that wouldn't be the last we saw of Pansy that evening. Pansy, pissed as hell, passed out near one of the lavatories, and Michael was nowhere in sight. Seeing this, Ginny rushed quickly over to her and insisted we help her out a bit. So, after we spent about an hours worth of time cleaning up Pansy's vomit, we helped her find her way towards the dungeon's and quickly made our way towards Ginny's dormitory.

"Please don't mention this to your brother," I asked. To this day I still don't know why; I have never feared Ron Weasley.

"I wont." she answered, smile never quavering. "Thanks for taking me to the dance. I really did have a nice time." A nice time? Here she was, covered in puke, and she was thanking me for a wonderful time at a dance?

Ginny Weasley could sure drive a man bonkers at times.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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